Spain, Portugal and Morocco: Lisbon, Seville and the Alhambra to Fes and Marrakech

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Lisbon

   Lisbon Airport (LIS) to your hotel in central Lisbon

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Welcome dinner
   • Nuit : Lisbon
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Lisbon's Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS), only about 7 km from the centre, and a driver meets you in the arrivals hall. Plan to land by about 4 pm so you are at the hotel in good time for the evening briefing; the exact latest arrival is confirmed with your final itinerary. The hotel is in the flat, grid-planned Baixa or in Chiado just above it, the part of the city rebuilt after the earthquake of 1755, so you can walk straight out to the river at the Praça do Comércio or ride the Santa Justa lift for a first view over the roofs. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group to walk through the fifteen nights ahead: what each country asks of your passport, how the ferry works and where the long days fall. Then we sit down together to a welcome dinner of Portuguese dishes at a local restaurant nearby.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Lisbon Airport (LIS)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Temps libre : Free until the evening briefing

   Activité : Land by about 4 pm to make the briefing; later arrivals are met and join the group at dinner or the next morning.

   

2. Jour 2 : Belém at opening, Alfama and fado

   Lisbon: Belém, the Baixa and Alfama

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Lisbon
   Détail du jour 2

   We drive along the Tagus to Belém and are at the door of the Jerónimos Monastery when it opens, ahead of the tour coaches. A local guide walks us round the two-storey cloister, carved in the Manueline style with twisted ropes, armillary spheres and sea creatures, and into the church where Vasco da Gama is buried. Together with the Belém Tower, which we see from the riverbank, the monastery is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A few doors away, the bakery that has made pastéis de Belém since 1837 serves them warm with cinnamon, and we stop for one. By late morning we are back in the centre and the afternoon is yours: the Gulbenkian collection, the shops of Chiado, or a nap. At about six we climb into Alfama, the oldest quarter, by stairways and washing-hung lanes to the Santa Luzia viewpoint over the river, then sit down to dinner with live fado, the music UNESCO lists as intangible heritage.

   Compris

   • Jerónimos Monastery at opening with a local guide
   • The Belém Tower and the Monument to the Discoveries from the riverbank
   • Pastel de Belém at the original bakery
   • Evening walk through Alfama to the Santa Luzia viewpoint
   • Dinner with live fado in Alfama

   Activités en option

   • São Jorge Castle in the free afternoon (entry on the day)
   • Tram 28 through Graça and Alfama

   Temps libre : Afternoon free

   Activité : Alfama is all hills and stairs; the walk up takes about 30 minutes at an easy pace.

3. Jour 3 : Sintra's palaces and the end of Europe

   Lisbon to Sintra, then Cabo da Roca and back to Lisbon

   • Environ 1.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Lisbon
   Détail du jour 3

   Sintra fills up by late morning, so we leave Lisbon early and are at the gate of the Pena Palace for one of the first timed entries. The palace, built in the 19th century for King Ferdinand II on a granite peak, is painted ochre and red and mixes Moorish, Gothic and Manueline ideas; the terraces look out over the forest to the Atlantic. The hills of Sintra are a UNESCO cultural landscape. We come down to the old village for a sit-down lunch, then walk to the Quinta da Regaleira, a mansion and garden full of grottoes, towers and the Initiation Well, a spiral stair that drops nine floors into the ground. In the late afternoon we drive to Cabo da Roca, the most westerly point of mainland Europe, where the cliffs fall about 140 m to the sea, and back to Lisbon along the coast. The evening is free.

   Compris

   • Pena Palace and its park, on an early timed entry
   • Sit-down lunch in Sintra
   • Quinta da Regaleira and the Initiation Well
   • Cabo da Roca

   Option plus facile : Take the park shuttle up to the Pena Palace terraces and skip the stairs of the Initiation Well; a café in Sintra's square waits for you.

   Option plus active : Walk the forest path from the Pena Palace to the walls of the Moorish Castle before lunch, about an hour with steep sections.

   Temps libre : Evening free

   Activité : About 8 km on foot, much of it uphill or on stairs.

4. Jour 4 : Évora, then across the border to Seville

   Lisbon to Évora, then via Elvas and Badajoz to Seville

   • Environ 5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Seville
   Détail du jour 4

   This is one of the two long road days, and we tell you now: about 455 km and four and three-quarter hours of driving, because no shorter road or direct train joins Lisbon and Seville. We split it with a long stop. After about an hour and a half east across the cork oaks of the Alentejo we reach Évora, whose walled centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Walk past the Roman temple of the 1st century AD, into the cathedral and on to the Chapel of Bones, lined with the bones of thousands of people by Franciscan friars in the 16th century. Lunch is a slow Alentejo meal in town. In the afternoon the motorway runs to the border at Elvas and Badajoz, where clocks go forward an hour, then south through Extremadura to Seville, which we reach in the early evening. The night is free to find tapas near the hotel.

   Compris

   • Évora with your guide: the Roman temple, the cathedral and the Chapel of Bones
   • Sit-down lunch in Évora
   • Drive to Seville via Elvas and Badajoz

   Option plus facile : Stay in the vehicle for the second half of the drive with a rest stop near the border, or skip the Chapel of Bones and take a longer lunch in Évora.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Seville

   Activité : About 4.75 hours of driving, split by about three hours in Évora; Spanish time is one hour ahead of Portugal.

5. Jour 5 : The Alcázar, the Cathedral and a flamenco night

   Seville: Santa Cruz, the Real Alcázar and the Cathedral

   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : Seville
   Détail du jour 5

   We walk through the lanes of Santa Cruz to the Real Alcázar for the first entry of the day, when the courtyards are quiet. With a licensed local guide we cross the palace that Pedro I built in the 14th century with craftsmen from Granada and Toledo: the Courtyard of the Maidens, the Ambassadors' Hall under its golden dome, then the tiled pavilions and orange trees of the gardens. Next door is the Cathedral, the largest Gothic church in the world, with the tomb of Columbus carried by four kings. Climb the Giralda, the old minaret, by its 35 ramps, wide enough for a man on horseback, for a view over the rooftops. The Alcázar, Cathedral and Archive of the Indies are a UNESCO site together. Lunch is yours in Santa Cruz, and the hot hours are for resting, as the city does. In the evening we go to a flamenco show, an art form UNESCO lists as intangible heritage.

   Compris

   • Real Alcázar on the first timed entry, with a licensed local guide
   • Seville Cathedral and the Giralda
   • Evening flamenco show

   Activités en option

   • Archive of the Indies (free entry) in the afternoon
   • A boat trip on the Guadalquivir at sunset

   Option plus facile : Skip the Giralda ramps and wait in the Patio de los Naranjos, the cathedral courtyard.

   Option plus active : Climb all 35 ramps of the Giralda to the bell chamber.

   Temps libre : Lunch and afternoon free

   Activité : About 3 hours on foot in the morning; the Giralda climb is a gentle ramp, not stairs.

   

6. Jour 6 : Plaza de España, the Venerables and Triana

   Seville: María Luisa Park, Santa Cruz and Triana

   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Seville
   Détail du jour 6

   A slower day, and the one travellers say they wanted more of in Seville. We start in the cool at the Plaza de España, the great curved brick and tile square built for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929, with a bench and tiled alcove for each Spanish province, and walk on through the shade of María Luisa Park. Back in Santa Cruz we visit the Hospital de los Venerables, a 17th-century home for elderly priests with a painted baroque church and a quiet patio. Then we cross the Isabel II bridge to Triana, the old potters' and sailors' quarter on the other bank: the market built over the ruins of the castle of the Inquisition, and the ceramics workshops along Calle Alfarería. Lunch and the afternoon are free. In the evening your guide takes the group on a tapas walk through three bars, sitting down for the last, with dietary needs planned in advance.

   Compris

   • Plaza de España and María Luisa Park with your guide
   • Hospital de los Venerables
   • Triana market and the ceramics workshops of Calle Alfarería
   • Evening tapas walk with your guide

   Activités en option

   • Casa de Pilatos in the free afternoon (entry on the day)
   • The Metropol Parasol walkway at sunset

   Temps libre : Lunch and afternoon free

   Activité : About 7 km on flat ground over the day.

7. Jour 7 : The Mezquita of Córdoba, then Granada

   Seville to Córdoba, then on to Granada

   • Environ 4 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Granada
   Détail du jour 7

   We leave Seville after breakfast and drive about an hour and three-quarters up the Guadalquivir valley to Córdoba, to be at the Mezquita-Catedral as tourist visiting opens. Begun in 785, when Córdoba was the capital of al-Andalus, the mosque is a forest of stone columns under double arches striped in red brick and white stone, with a Renaissance cathedral built into its centre in the 16th century. Its mihrab is covered in gold Byzantine-style mosaic. Your guide then leads you through the Jewish quarter, past the synagogue and the flower-hung Calleja de las Flores, to the Roman bridge. Lunch is in the old town; try salmorejo, Córdoba's thick cold tomato soup. Mid-afternoon we drive about two and a quarter hours to Granada. Before dinner we climb through the white lanes of the Albaicín to the Mirador de San Nicolás to watch the sun go down on the Alhambra, with the Sierra Nevada behind.

   Compris

   • The Mezquita-Catedral of Córdoba with a licensed local guide
   • Córdoba's Jewish quarter and the Roman bridge
   • Sit-down lunch in Córdoba
   • Sunset over the Alhambra from the Mirador de San Nicolás

   Option plus facile : Take a taxi up to the Mirador de San Nicolás instead of walking the Albaicín's steep lanes.

   Temps libre : Dinner free in Granada

   Activité : About 4 hours of driving in two parts, with about four hours in Córdoba between them.

8. Jour 8 : The Alhambra, early

   Granada: the Alhambra and Generalife

   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : Granada
   Détail du jour 8

   Your tickets were bought when your departure was confirmed, so there is no queue and no gamble: we are at the Alhambra gate at 8:30, as it opens, with a licensed local guide. We begin in the Alcazaba, the fortress at the western tip of the hill, and climb its watchtower for the view over the Albaicín you looked up from last night. At our timed slot we enter the Nasrid Palaces, built by the last Muslim kings of Granada in the 13th and 14th centuries: the Court of the Myrtles, the Hall of the Ambassadors and the Court of the Lions, every wall carved in stucco and verse. After the Renaissance Palace of Charles V we walk the water gardens of the Generalife, the summer palace. The Alhambra, the Generalife and the Albaicín are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We are back in town by early afternoon, and the rest of the day is yours.

   Compris

   • The Alhambra with a licensed local guide: the Alcazaba, the Nasrid Palaces on a timed entry, the Palace of Charles V and the Generalife

   Activités en option

   • The Royal Chapel and the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella
   • A zambra flamenco evening in a Sacromonte cave
   • The Arab baths of the Albaicín

   Option plus facile : Ride the small city bus up to the Alhambra and back instead of walking the hill, and skip the Alcazaba tower stairs.

   Option plus active : In the afternoon, walk the Sacromonte path up to the Abbey for the view back across the valley to the Alhambra.

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free

   Activité : About 3.5 to 4 hours and 4 km on foot inside the Alhambra; bring your passport, as tickets are issued in your name.

9. Jour 9 : To Tarifa and across the Strait to Tangier

   Granada to Tarifa via Málaga, then the ferry to Tangier

   • Environ 3.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Tangier
   Détail du jour 9

   We leave Granada after breakfast and drive about 295 km, three and a quarter hours, to Tarifa, down to the coast at Málaga and west past Gibraltar's rock. Tarifa is the southern tip of mainland Europe, a walled town of whitewashed lanes and wind, with Morocco about 14 km away across the water on a clear day. We sit down to lunch in the old town and walk out along the causeway towards the Isla de las Palomas, where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic. In the afternoon we take the ferry, about an hour on the water, to the port in the heart of Tangier; we confirm the Moroccan passport procedure, on board or at the port, when we book the crossing. Our Moroccan driver meets us at the quay. We stop here for the night instead of pushing on in the dark: walk with your guide from the Grand Socco into the Kasbah, then watch the sun drop over the Strait from the terraces of a clifftop café.

   Compris

   • Drive from Granada to Tarifa with your guide
   • Sit-down lunch in Tarifa
   • Ferry from Tarifa to Tangier
   • Evening walk through the Grand Socco and the Kasbah of Tangier

   Temps libre : Dinner free in Tangier

   Activité : Keep your passport in your day bag for the crossing. Morocco's clock is usually an hour behind Spain in summer. If wind stops sailings from Tarifa, we cross from Algeciras and reach Tangier later.

   

10. Jour 10 : Tetouan, then up into the Rif to Chefchaouen

    Tangier to Tetouan, then on to Chefchaouen

    • Environ 2.5 h de route
    • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
    • Nuit : Chefchaouen
    Détail du jour 10

    About an hour's drive brings us to Tetouan, at the foot of the Rif mountains. Its medina, rebuilt at the end of the 15th century by Muslim and Jewish refugees from Granada, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and you will see the Granada you left yesterday in its white houses, carved doors and tiled fountains. A licensed local guide walks us through the souks of leatherworkers and spice sellers and the old Jewish quarter. Lunch is in town. In the afternoon the road climbs for about an hour and a quarter through the green Rif to Chefchaouen, founded in 1471, its houses washed in every shade of blue against the mountain. Leave your bags and rest, then in the late afternoon walk with your guide up the hillside path to the Spanish Mosque, built in the 1920s, for the sunset over the blue town. Dinner tonight is free.

    Compris

    • Tetouan medina with a licensed local guide
    • Sit-down lunch in Tetouan
    • Sunset walk to the Spanish Mosque above Chefchaouen

    Option plus facile : Watch the sunset from a rooftop terrace in the medina instead of walking up to the mosque.

    Temps libre : Dinner free in Chefchaouen

    Activité : The walk to the Spanish Mosque takes about 30 minutes uphill on a dirt path; bring a torch for the walk down.

    

11. Jour 11 : Chefchaouen early, then south to Fes

    Chefchaouen to Fes via Ouezzane

    • Environ 4 h de route
    • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
    • Nuit : Fes
    Détail du jour 11

    Day visitors from Fes and Tangier arrive in Chefchaouen from late morning, so we walk the blue medina with a local guide straight after breakfast, while the lanes are quiet and the light is soft. We start at the Outa el Hammam square, below the red walls of the Kasbah and the octagonal minaret of the Great Mosque, then climb the stepped lanes to Ras el Maa, the spring at the top of the town where women still wash clothes in the stream. There is time for the Kasbah's garden and small museum, and for the weavers and goat-cheese sellers. After a sit-down lunch in town we drive south for about four hours through the farmland and olive groves around Ouezzane, with a tea stop on the way, and reach Fes in the late afternoon. Porters carry bags from the vehicle to the hotel if it sits inside the medina. The evening is free.

    Compris

    • Morning walk in the Chefchaouen medina with a local guide
    • The Kasbah garden and museum
    • Sit-down lunch in Chefchaouen
    • Drive to Fes with a tea stop

    Option plus facile : Walk only the lower medina around Outa el Hammam and skip the climb to Ras el Maa; the drive has a tea stop halfway.

    Temps libre : Evening free in Fes

    Activité : About 4 hours of driving after lunch, with a break halfway.

12. Jour 12 : Fes el Bali

    A guided day in the Fes medina

    • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
    • Nuit : Fes
    Détail du jour 12

    We are at Bab Boujloud, the blue-tiled gate of 1913, at 8 am, before the day groups, with a licensed Fes guide. Fes el Bali has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981 and is one of the largest car-free urban areas in the world, so the whole day is on foot, with mules and handcarts squeezing past. We go first to the Bou Inania Madrasa, built in the 1350s, its courtyard carved in cedar, stucco and zellij tile. From a leather shop's terrace we look down on the stone vats of the Chouara tannery while the morning light is soft. Then the Al-Attarine Madrasa of the 1320s, a look through the doors of al-Qarawiyyin, founded in 859, and the Nejjarine square with its tiled fountain. Lunch is a sit-down meal inside the medina. The afternoon is free, and at sunset we drive up to the Marinid Tombs for the view over the old city as the calls to prayer begin.

    Compris

    • Guided day in Fes el Bali with a licensed local guide
    • Bou Inania and Al-Attarine madrasa entries
    • Chouara tannery from a terrace
    • Sit-down lunch in the medina
    • Sunset at the Marinid Tombs

    Activités en option

    • A hammam and scrub in the medina

    Option plus facile : Walk the morning loop, then go back to the hotel after lunch; the sunset drive is optional.

    Option plus active : In the free afternoon, walk with your guide to the potters' quarter outside Bab Ftouh to see zellij tiles cut by hand.

    Temps libre : Afternoon free

    Activité : About 8 km on foot over the day; the medina is steep in places and every lane is on foot.

13. Jour 13 : Casablanca's Hassan II Mosque, then Marrakech

    Fes to Casablanca, then on to Marrakech

    • Environ 5.5 h de route
    • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
    • Nuit : Marrakech
    Détail du jour 13

    This is the second long road day, about 530 km and five and a half hours of driving, and the reason is simple: Fes and Marrakech are far apart, and the train takes about seven hours. We split the drive almost in half. After about three hours on the motorway past Meknes and Rabat we reach Casablanca for lunch near the ocean. Then a guided tour of the Hassan II Mosque, completed in 1993 and built partly over the Atlantic, one of the few mosques in Morocco open to non-Muslims. Its prayer hall holds about 25,000 people, the roof can slide open, and the minaret rises about 210 m. Tours run at set times outside prayer hours, and ours sets the shape of the day. Afterwards it is about two and a half hours south across the plains to Marrakech, which we reach in the early evening. The evening is free.

    Compris

    • Sit-down lunch in Casablanca
    • Guided tour of the Hassan II Mosque
    • Drive from Fes to Marrakech with your guide

    Option plus facile : Sit out the mosque tour with a coffee on the Corniche, and rest in the vehicle on the last stretch; we add a stop on the motorway if anyone needs one.

    Temps libre : Evening free in Marrakech

    Activité : About 5.5 hours of driving, split by about three hours in Casablanca. Cover shoulders and knees for the mosque, and expect to take your shoes off inside.

14. Jour 14 : The Marrakech medina

    Marrakech: palaces, the souks and Jemaa el-Fna

    • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
    • Nuit : Marrakech
    Détail du jour 14

    We start at the Bahia Palace when it opens, before the tour groups fill its courtyards: a late 19th-century palace of painted cedar ceilings, zellij and gardens built for the grand viziers of the sultan. A short walk brings us to the Saadian Tombs, the 16th-century dynasty's burial chambers, sealed off for centuries and rediscovered in 1917. With a licensed local guide we then cross into the souks: the dyers, metalworkers and leather sellers, each trade in its own lanes. Lunch is a sit-down meal in the medina. After lunch we visit the Ben Youssef Madrasa, its carved courtyard and student cells reopened after restoration. The rest of the afternoon is free to rest at your riad. As the light goes, meet your guide on a terrace above Jemaa el-Fna, the square UNESCO lists for its storytellers and musicians, to watch the food stalls set up below, with the Koutoubia minaret lit up beyond.

    Compris

    • Bahia Palace at opening
    • The Saadian Tombs
    • The souks with a licensed local guide
    • Sit-down lunch in the medina
    • Ben Youssef Madrasa
    • Jemaa el-Fna at dusk from a terrace

    Option plus facile : Join the morning at the Bahia Palace and the souks, then go back to your riad after lunch and skip Ben Youssef.

    Temps libre : Afternoon free

    Activité : About 6 km on foot in the medina; the lanes are flat but busy with motorbikes and handcarts.

    

15. Jour 15 : Jardin Majorelle and a day of your own

    Marrakech: Jardin Majorelle, then a free day

    • Environ 15 min de route
    • Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
    • Nuit : Marrakech
    Détail du jour 15

    We go early to Jardin Majorelle, on one of the first timed entries, before the queues form along the street outside. The French painter Jacques Majorelle laid out the garden from the 1920s around a studio painted the deep cobalt now named after him, and Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé bought and restored it in 1980. Walk its paths of cactus, bamboo and palms, past the lily ponds, and see the small Berber museum inside the old studio. After that the day is yours, the free day other trips leave out: a hammam, a cooking class, shopping in the souks for lanterns and rugs at your own pace, or simply the pool and a book at your riad. Your guide is on hand to book anything you want. In the evening we come together for a farewell dinner of Moroccan dishes, tagine and couscous, at a restaurant in the medina.

    Compris

    • Jardin Majorelle on an early timed entry, with the Berber museum
    • Farewell dinner in the medina

    Activités en option

    • The Musée Yves Saint Laurent next to the garden
    • A hammam and massage
    • A Moroccan cooking class
    • A half day in the Atlas foothills

    Option plus facile : Spend the free day at your riad or a hammam.

    Option plus active : A half day in the Atlas foothills, about an hour and a half's drive each way, with a walk between Amazigh villages, booked through your guide.

    Temps libre : Day free after the garden

16. Jour 16 : Depart Marrakech

    Marrakech to Marrakech Menara Airport (RAK)

    • Environ 30 min de route
    • Petit-déjeuner
    Détail du jour 16

    After breakfast the trip ends. Marrakech Menara Airport (RAK) is only about 6 km from the medina, so we take you there for any flight, whatever the time, and your guide sees you to the terminal and checks your flight before saying goodbye. If you fly late, the hotel keeps your bags and there is time for one more walk: the Koutoubia gardens, the quiet Cyber Park, or a last mint tea on a roof terrace. If you want longer, ask us when you book to add nights in Marrakech, or follow on into the desert with our Marrakech, the Sahara and Fes trip, which crosses the High Atlas to the dunes of Erg Chebbi. Leave time at the airport: security queues at Menara can be long, so plan to arrive about three hours before an international flight, and keep a few dirhams for a coffee, as the currency cannot be changed outside Morocco.

    Compris

    • Drop-off at Marrakech Menara Airport (RAK)

    Temps libre : Free until your airport transfer

    Activité : Any flight time works; book a flight out of Marrakech, not back from Lisbon.

Faune et météo : Spring and autumn bring warm days and mild evenings in Seville, Fes and Marrakech. July and August are routinely above 40°C in Seville, Córdoba and Marrakech, so we do not run then. Evenings in Chefchaouen and Fes are cool early and late in the season, and the Levante wind can delay Strait crossings.

• Lisbon3 nuits
• Seville3 nuits
• Granada2 nuits
• Tangier1 nuit
• Chefchaouen1 nuit
• Fes2 nuits
• Marrakech3 nuits